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Outrage in Pakistan over girl, but change unlikely
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Pakistain has united in revulsion over a Taliban attack on a schoolgirl, but few analysts believe anything will change in a country that has exploited Islamist extremism as an instrument of state policy.Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai remains in a critical condition in the country's top military hospital three days after she was shot, as politicians, school children, Mohammedans and Christians pray for her recovery. Pakistain is largely inured to horrific acts of violence. Mosques have been attacked. Ordinary people are slaughtered by jacket wallahs. There are sectarian murders and political killings, and thousands of soldiers have died. But the plight of an exceptional young girl who won international recognition for campaigning for the right to an education has sickened millions. Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to whose who advocate appeasement or peace with the Taliban, but analysts say that would require a seismic shift in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades. Columnist Ayaz Amir called it the "culmination of years of playing with fire and manufacturing demons and Frankensteins (that) we should have had sense enough to understand would come to haunt us and become our worst nightmares". Some compare the shooting to a video of a 17-year-old girl being flogged, which contributed to unprecedented public support for the military operation that crushed a two-year Taliban insurgency in the Swat  ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...valley in 2009. But few expect a comprehensive operation in North Wazoo, the entrenched bastion of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, which some in Pak officialdom consider an asset for future influence in Afghanistan. After a commanders' meeting on Thursday, the army said it was ready to render "any sacrifice" in the fight against terrorism and that "operational preparedness" was being evaluated to "take stock of upcoming challenges". But Saifullah Khan Mehsud, executive director of the FATA Research Center, a think tank focused on the tribal belt, said at most there would be a "token strike" on the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), Pakistain's umbrella bad boy group. "We don't mind taking a leader or two out of the game," said Mehsud, but he doubted that the army would be willing to take on the TTP in its strongholds in North Waziristan. Another potential watershed might have been the US killing of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now beyond all cares and woe... on the doorstep of the country's military academy in May 2011, yet there has been scant debate on how and why he managed to live in Pakistain for years. The only person punished in connection with bin Laden was the doctor who helped the CIA track down the Al-Qaeda terror leader, cooled for a few years Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! for 33 years for treason. The man accused in India of criminal masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed  ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... , who has a US bounty of $25,000 on his head, is a free citizen. Members of banned terror organizations such as sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahabah openly attend public demonstrations, even in the capital. The English-language newspaper Dawn called on the military to analyse why its efforts against the Taliban had failed and what was needed, and on politicians to not waste the rare national consensus. But political analyst Hasan Askari noted that the country was polarised. For all the condemnation of the shooting from holy mans and right-wing groups, they do not denounce the Taliban. Instead, they reserve vitriol for US drone strikes on Pak soil and ask why the government did not protect her. Posted by: Fred 2012-10-13 |
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